[w4] Aspects of Connected Speech

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Contents

1.Rhythm2.Assimilation3.Elision4.Linking5.Weak forms

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1. Rhythm

the sense of movement in speech, marked by the stress timing, and quantity of syllables

we can detect the rhythm of a heartbeat, a flashing light or a piece fo music

this language is rhythmical ?What do we need in order to call a

language as rhythmical?

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1. Rhythm

English – stress-timed rhythmstressed syllables tend to occur at relatively regularintervals whether they are seperated by unstressed

syllables or not

the time from each stressed syllable to the next will tend to be the same, regardless of the intervening unstressed syllables

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1. Rhythm

Russian, Arabicstress-timed rhythm

French, Telugu, Turkish, West Indian Englishsyllable-timed rhythm

syllable-timed rhythm ?all syllables, whether stressed or unstressed, tend to occur at regular time intervals and time between stressed syllables will be shorter or longer in

proportion to the number of unstressed syllables

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1. Rhythm

stress-timed syllable-timed mora-timed

EnglishGermanRussianSwedishArabicDanishDutch

NorwegianPortugese

TurkishSpanishFrenchItalian

ChineseFinnishGreek

Japanese

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1. Rhythm

foot model of analysing rhythm

the foot begins with a stressed syllable andincludes all following unstressed syllables up to the

following stressed syllable

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1. Rhythm

some feet are stronger than others…?

strong and weak

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1. Rhythm

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1. Rhythm

relationship between strong and weak elements, and the different levels of stress

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1. Rhythm

metrical grid

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1. Rhythm

Does the situation remain the same in normal speech?

twenty placestwenty places further back

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1. Rhythm

twenty placestwenty places further back

alternation

to adjust the stressstress-shift

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1. Rhythm

THUS,The stress is altered according to context.

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1. Rhythm

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We also need a small plastic snake and a big toy frog for the kids.

1. Rhythm

we also need a small plastic snake and a big toy frog for the kids

Time (s)

0 4.21

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2. Assimilation

change in pronunciation of a phoneme under theinfluence of its surrounding sounds

realization of phoneme of a particular word when the wordis pronounced in isolation

a phoneme can be realized differently as a resultof being near some other phoneme belonging to

a neighbouring wordASSIMILATION

news /njuːz/newspaper /ˈnjuːspeɪpə/

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2. Assimilation

news /njuːz/newspaper /ˈnjuːspeɪpə/

assimilation varies in extend according tospeaking rate and style

THUSit is more likely to be found in rapid, casual speech

and less likely in slow, careful speech (mechanical speech)

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2. Assimilation

the word ends with a single final consonant Cf

the word starts with a single initial consonant Ci

if the phoneme that comes first is affected by the one that comes after it

REGRESSIVE ASSIMILATION

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2. Assimilation

if Ci changes to become like Cf in some way,PROGRESSIVE ASSIMILATION

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2. Assimilation

dinlemekanlamakanlatmak

dinnemekannamakannatmak

/l/ [n] / n____

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2. Assimilation

Q | In what ways can a consonant change?

- differences in place of articulation- differences in manner of articulation- differences in voicing

1. ASSIMILATION OF PLACE

that /ðət/ person /pɜːsn ̩/

that person – ðæp pɜːsn

alveolar t to bilabial p

2. ASSIMILATION OF MANNER

a possible case where a final plosive becomes a fricative or nasal

that /ðət/ side /saɪd/

that side – ðæs saıd3. ASSIMILATION OF

VOICE

have /hæv/have to hæf tu

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2. Assimilation

Yod Coalescencenamed after a letter in Hebrew alphabet, Yod, which stands for thevolwel /i/ or the semi-vowel /j/.

In English, it is a form of assimilation

when /j/ is preceded by certain consonants most commonly /t/ and /d/

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2. Assimilation

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3. Elision

under certain circumstancessounds disappear

in certain circumstances, a phoneme may be realised as zero, orhave a zero realisation or be deleted

rapid, casual speech

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3. Elision

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3. Elision

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3. Elision

a situ seen in casual speechwould be regarded as substandard by conservative listeners

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3. Elision

contractions of grammatical forms? elision

since they are regularly represented with specialspelling forms, they seem rather different from the

other elision examples

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3. Elision

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4. Linking

mechanical speech connected speech

A PROFILE: The phoneme /r/ does not occurin syllable –final position in the BBC accent

when a wordbeginning with a

vowel follows

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In English, there are a number of words which have onepronunciation (strong) when isolated, and another(weak) when not stressed within a phrase:

a car /ˈeɪ ˈkɑ:/I bought a car /aɪ ˈbɔ:t ə ˈkɑ:/

5. Weak Forms [W3]

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5. Weak Forms

vowel quality of weak forms

change in vowel quality:from a border position

to a central position

A GENERALIZATION?

The vowel in a weak form is usually the

schwa (ə).

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I went to the hotel and booked a room for two nights for my father and his best friend.

went hotel booked room two nights father best friend

Can we predict the missing words?

the words which are central to the message is emphasized

weak forms do not communicate a large quantity of information

they are not content words

5. Weak Forms

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References- Nespor, M. et.al. (2010). Stress-timed vs. Syllable-timed Languages. TBC_048.qxd Retrieved from

sissa.it/cns/Articles/TBC_048.pdf on 2nd of Nov. 2013- Course notes by David Brett- Roach, P. (1983/2009).English Phonetics and Phonology: A Practical Course. 4th Edition. Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press.